Trentin warns the next Pogacar hunt is draining cycling talent
Matteo Trentin has seen Opening Weekend often enough to spot when the sport’s rhythm changes. Ahead of what should be his 14th Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, the 36-year-old believes cycling is moving quicker than its people can sometimes handle. In a conversation on the Bici Sport podcast, he argued that the obsession with finding another Tadej Pogacar is creating collateral damage.
Now with Tudor Pro Cycling Team, Trentin remains a familiar figure when the cobbles return, even if a major Monument still eludes him. Yet the routine of Opening Weekend has taken on a different feel. “I’ve had a good preparation and I’m ready, but it’s as if you get used to it,” he said, reflecting on returning to the start line again and again.
That sense of repetition contrasts with the way daily life in the peloton has been rewritten by modern performance culture. Trentin points to nutrition as the clearest marker. “When I started, 30 grams of carbohydrates per hour was enough and I still ate sandwiches,” he said. “Now I treat myself to at most a small toast on the bus.” The margins are tighter, the protocols stricter, and the expectations more constant.
Even so, Trentin insists he is not chasing every trend. With family life established in Monaco, he has chosen a more selective approach to training camps. “I have a wife and two children. I live in Monaco where I can train perfectly,” he explained. “I’m really not going to spend weeks and weeks in Spain anymore, one week is enough for me.”
His real worry sits with the next generation and the speed at which careers are being pushed forward. “I think in recent years a big mistake has been made trying to find the next Pogacar at all costs, and in doing so we’ve lost many talents,” Trentin warned.
Having spent three seasons at UAE Team Emirates-XRG as a senior rider alongside Pogačar, he understands what a genuine outlier looks like up close. His point is that Pogačar’s trajectory is rare, yet the industry is increasingly treating it as a model to copy.
For Trentin, the gap between physical readiness and real readiness is where the damage happens. “Just because someone is physically ready doesn’t mean they are mentally ready,” he said. Professional cycling, he stressed, is not only about race days and training files. It is a constant life of management, from fuelling and recovery to travel, logistics and the daily discipline of doing everything right without being told.
For a teenager fast tracked into that environment, the strain can arrive before the results, especially when the label attached to them is the next superstar.
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